Thomas’ wagon driver, Ezekiel, poked his head into the wagon with an urgent expression on his face. His skin was even paler than Thomas’.

“Ezekiel, what is the problem?” said Thomas, turning to face the driver. “Why did we stop? Who is screaming?”

Ezekiel gulped. “An elderly man is being assaulted by several bandits just down the road. Luckily, I managed to stop the caravan before the bandits could notice us, but I’m thinking we might need to find another way around—”

“Someone is being assaulted?” I said, interrupting Ezekiel. I traded knowing looks with Jonah. “We need to help him.”

Thomas gave me a rather startled look. “Help? But they are bandits. It’s too dangerous.”

“No one said you need to help.” Jonah walked over to the wagon entrance and glanced at Thomas. “If you think those bandits are going to stop with just the old man, then I have a brand new, previously-undiscovered Legendary-level dungeon to sell exclusively to you.”

With that, Jonah jumped out of the wagon and I followed. Nimbus teleported onto my shoulders unprompted and I heard Ruth telling Thomas and Ezekiel that they should stay put until the fight was over.

Which would hopefully be soon.

If there was one thing we were good at, it was fighting bandits.

Nimbus and I ran behind Jonah, who kept ahead of us by a few paces. We rushed past the wagons, which had come to a complete standstill in the middle of the road, though it wasn’t until we passed the head wagon that we finally saw the situation for ourselves with our own eyes.

A bent-over old man, wearing a tattered brown traveling cloak that seemed to consume his body, was surrounded by several bandits. The bandits looked to be older than us—mostly in their mid-twenties aside from the leader, but none of them seemed to be Codexers, which was good. That would make it easier to take them out.

The lead bandit, a middle-aged man with a face only a mother could love, raised a sword over his head. “All right, old man. Give us all your gold and your portable and we will only hurt you a little bit.”

The elderly man, who was clutching a gnarled walking stick for dear life, huffed. “It is quite bold of you bandits to attack me so close to the capital. Aren’t you afraid of running afoul of the City Guard?”

The bandit leader laughed. “In case you haven’t noticed, old man, the City Guard doesn’t patrol this far out. And the Codexers working in the farms don’t know how to fight. So your threats mean nothing to us. Now give us your gold and your portable before we take them from you by force.”

The elderly man clutched his walking stick even more tightly. “If there is one creed I live by, it is that criminals like you deserve nothing from innocents like me.”

The bandit leader shook his head and stepped forward. “All right. I offered to do this the easy way, but if you would rather do this the hard way, then be my guest.”

The bandit leader raised his sword over his head even higher and brought it down on the elderlyman …

Right on top of Jonah’s trident as Jonah rushed between him and the bandit leader.

Clang.

The sword collided with Jonah’s trident, creating a loud clanging sound but otherwise doing nothing to harm Jonah. Jonah didn’t even move. He just stood there between the elderly man and the bandit leader, holding the trident over his head, an unimpressed look on his face.

A startled look appeared in the eyes of the bandit leader. “Huh? Who are you? And what’s with the trident?”

“Useful for killing fish,” Jonah replied. His gaze hardened. “And making bandits regret ever being born.”

Jonah twisted his trident, wrenching the sword out of the bandit’s hands. The bandit leader reached for a knife at his belt, but froze when Jonah pointed the tips of his trident against his neck.

“One move,” said Jonah, keeping his gaze fixed on the bandit. “And I will introduce you to three of my favorite points.”

The bandit leader froze, face pale, but his fellow bandits didn’t. The sound of swords being ripped out of leather sheaths tore through the air as the bandits pulled out their blades, though Jonah paid them no attention.

Probably because he trusted I would take care of the rest.

I jumped forward and unleashed a spell from my glyph reservoir, one I had inscribed for just this sort of occasion: Shadow Web.

But this wasn’t the normal version of Shadow Web. During our trip from Greenwood, I’d spent some time tinkering with the different variations I could make of my spells, including Shadow Web. It was much easier to modify an existing spell than make a new one, not to mention infinitely cheaper since I didn’t have to spend 35 Words to modify an existing spell.

Yeah, I was still a little bitter about that.

Normally, Shadow Web could only affect one target at a time; however, I’d increased the radius of Shadow Web by 50% under the assumption that it would allow me to affect multiple targets at once. I’d also added the ECHO Protocol so it would cast multiple times, just in case I didn’t increase the radius enough. This was my first time using this modified version of the spell, however, so I didn’t know how well it would work.

The only issue was that I couldn’t quite keep it from affecting Jonah and the elderly man, but that was where Nimbus came in. He Phase-Stepped onto the elderly man’s shoulders, then teleported them both back to me. The elderly man, startled by the abrupt change in scenery around him, almost fell over before I caught his arm.

“Thank you, young man,” said the elderly man, keeping his head down and making it difficult to see his face. He sounded a bit tired but otherwise okay. “Your rabbit is quite the creature. Is he a Codex Beast?”

I nodded, but then I heard loud cries from the bandits and I looked up to see Shadow Web at work.

A large pool of darkness materialized underneath the bandits, ensnaring their feet and legs and crawling up to their arms. The bandits struggled to free themselves, but since they were just ordinary people with no special powers, they were completely powerless to free themselves.

Jonah, on the other hand, had leaped into the air as soon as I cast the spell. He landed outside of the radius of the spell before running in a circle around it, striking each bandit on the head with his trident. Each blow knocked out the bandits instantly, until soon every single one of the bandits lay unconscious on the ground, their weapons by their sides, groaning but otherwise motionless.

Then Jonah thrust his hand out toward them and a golden barrier—designed to keep them from escaping when they woke up after Shadow Web ended—appeared around the fallen bandits.

“Amazing,” said the elderly man, now staring at the barrier surrounding the bandits. “You two must be Codexers.”

I opened my mouth to reply, but then my portable Node pinged and I got the following notification:

Congratulations! Shadow Web is now Rank II. Casting time has been reduced to 2 seconds. You can now target one other target with the same spell without having to modify it in the Inscriptionist Console.

That was a pleasant surprise. It had been a while since I had last ranked up a spell, but reducing the casting time and getting the ability to trap two targets with the same spell without having to modify the original spell was a nice upgrade. It would have been nice to rank it up before the fight, but this would definitely be useful in the future.

Dismissing the notification, I looked at the elderly man. He had finally raised his head, letting me see his aged features. He bore a surprisingly stern expression on his face, looking like a man who had fought a war in his youth … and won. His gaze was intense, yet friendly.

I smiled. “We are. And we have a friend back in our wagon who is also a Codexer, though she’s more of a healer than a fighter.”

“Yep,” said Jonah as he approached us. “Ruth is definitely more of a healer than a fighter. Anyway, old man, are you okay? Did those bandits rough you up?”

The elderly man shook his head. “Not quite. To tell you the truth, you probably saved them more than me, seeing as they weren’t Codexers. They weren’t even Bookers. They were just trash looking to take advantage of a ‘weak’ old man like myself.”

The elderly man chuckled to himself like he’d just told a brilliant joke.

I frowned. “You mean you weren’t in danger at all? Then why did you scream?”

“Lowering their defenses, of course.” The elderly man glanced at the unconscious bandits trapped behind the barrier. “But I must admit, you two and your rabbit did a brilliant job in taking out those bandits quickly and efficiently. Color this ‘old man’ impressed.”

Jonah shrugged. “We have experience with bandits. None of it good.”

“But all of it clearly useful,” the elderly man said with a wink. “Regardless, I must thank you for your help. Are you and your party heading to Hebron, per chance?”

I opened my mouth to speak, but then I heard footsteps behind us and looked over my shoulder to see Thomas, Ruth, and an exasperated Ezekiel running toward us. Thomas ran surprisingly fast for a middle-aged man with a pipe in his mouth, though Ruth kept up with him no problem. As for Ezekiel, he seemed to be struggling the most, running as quickly as he could but wearing a look of intense fear on his face the entire time.

“Mr. Thomas!” Ezekiel cried out. “You should stay in your wagon! It’s not safe out here.”

“You really should listen to your servant, you know,” said Ruth as she ran after Thomas. “You aren’t a fighter.”

“Nonsense,” said Thomas with a shake of his head. He sounded slightly out of breath, huffing and puffing. “If those two youngsters are going to put themselves in danger to save someone they don’t even know, then the least I can do is—Mayor?”

Thomas had come to an abrupt stop, staring at the elderly man standing next to me and Jonah with big eyes. Ruth and Ezekiel had also stopped, with Ezekiel’s expression matching Thomas’, while Ruth just looked confused.

“Hey, Ruth!” Nimbus waved at her with a paw. “Good news: We defeated the bandits and saved this old man. Bad news: The bandits did not have bananas in their pockets at all. I checked.”

Ruth raised an eyebrow. “Um, thanks. I guess that means we didn’t have to worry about Thomas so much.”

“You defeated the bandits?” Ezekiel’s eyes turned to the fallen bandits inside the golden barrier. “Oh. You did. Great. I guess that means we aren’t going to die.”

I turned my attention to Thomas, who was still staring at the elderly man. “Mr. Thomas, did you just call this man ‘Mayor’?”

The elderly man chuckled. “That he did, young man. Mr. Thomas and I know each other quite well, seeing as he is one of the preeminent businessmen of Hebron while I am its leader. Though I suppose it makes sense you wouldn’t recognize me, even though I recognize you, Aaron Thorn.”

I started when the elderly man used my name. “You know my name? But we haven’t even introduced ourselves yet.”

“No need.” The elderly man smiled. “Isaac explained everything in a NodeLink message a few days ago. But it would be polite for me to introduce myself. I am Caleb Jepunnah, the Mayor of Hebron … and the Codex Keeper of the Grand Codexium of Hebron.”